The Cup of Judgment

[0:00] The blessings and the life that you've given us this week. Lord, we ask your blessing on our time tonight as we look at your word, as we sing, as we remember who you are, how great you are, and how much you love us.

[0:15] We thank you for that, Lord. Amen. We sing a song. Psalm 75.

[0:30] Psalm 75. This one's actually a song, which is good.

[0:47] It's kind of just the thought of being able to spend some time reading over and meditating something that, you know, the people of Israel sang.

[1:00] It says in some of the Bible that it was according to do not destroy. So the thought behind that is that could be like the melody or something that the singers, the people in charge of worship, knew the song by and the song kind of went by.

[1:20] So I don't really have a specific time or event that this song was sung.

[1:31] But nonetheless, it's one that is encouraging and also eye-opening because it deals with the pride of wicked people.

[1:47] And God talks about dealing with them, which is difficult to sing. But at the same time, we sing to that and we sing praise to God. So I'm going to read through the whole thing and then we'll just break it down.

[2:01] Verse 1. We give thanks to you, O God. We give thanks for your name is near. We recount your wondrous deeds. At the set time that I appoint, I will judge with equity.

[2:14] When the earth totters and all its inhabitants, it is I who keeps steady its pillars, Selah. I say to the boastful, do not boast.

[2:25] And to the wicked, do not lift up your horn. Do not lift up your horn on high or speak with haughty neck. For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up.

[2:39] But it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another. For in the hand of the Lord, there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it.

[2:51] And all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs. But I will declare it forever. I will sing praises to the God of Jacob. All the horns of the wicked I will cut off.

[3:04] But the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up. At times, I'm not sure exactly how you might sing that in a corporate worship setting.

[3:15] But I'm sure the singing was different back then than it is now. And nonetheless, it's helpful for us to go through these. We give thanks to you, O God.

[3:30] It is not to ourselves that we're looking. It's not to ourselves that we're giving praise. But it's to God. So it's repeated there. We give thanks for your name is near. And we recount your wondrous deeds.

[3:43] This is something that repeats a lot in the Psalms. Is David or other authors of the Psalms just rehearsing what God has done.

[3:53] And this is really something that's helpful. Just remembering what God does and how he blesses us. Especially at times where we're struggling.

[4:05] Especially, you know, times where we feel like things aren't going well. Or there's more bad than good. It's helpful to go over all the things that God has done for us.

[4:16] So this is what the Israelites are doing. And we recount your wondrous deeds. How he rescued them from slavery. How he brought them up from the Red Sea. How he fed them through the wilderness.

[4:28] And he brought them into the land that he promised them. Even now, during this time, he's raising up kings for them. And he's giving them prosperity.

[4:38] And he's making them victorious over the enemies that are coming up against them. And so they're recounting this. They're giving God praise for these things. Just praising him for his protection.

[4:52] For his providence and his grace. So just things that are helpful to us. Again, just to remind ourselves of the wondrous deeds that God has done for us.

[5:05] And his ongoing grace for us are proofs that he is ever with us. So that's the thought of when it says that your name is near. Jesus is with us.

[5:16] Is what that means. Matthew 28, verse 20. Jesus says, And behold, I am with you always. Even to the end of the age. So after he gives the command to go and make disciples.

[5:31] He's also quick to give that reassurance that I'm going to be with you. As we look at the next few verses. Verse 1 was the people singing this or reading this.

[5:47] And verses 2 to 5, this is actually from God's perspective. So this is God speaking as he says, At the set time that I appoint, I will judge with equity or uprightnessness.

[6:03] Here God is saying that not only is he the upright judge, but he chooses the proper time for his judgment. While his timing, as we all know, might not be what we choose, we have to humbly trust him knowing that his timing and his judgments are right.

[6:22] Dr. James Boyce says, If judgment were left in our hands, we would probably let it flash out against anything that displeases us whenever we see it.

[6:34] But God lets evil go unchecked sometimes for a rather long time, knowing that he has appointed a proper time when it will be brought down. God will seize the moment.

[6:46] It will be in his time. And it will never be late. Verse 3 says, When the earth totters and all its inhabitants, in some translations it says dissolved or quaked, when the earth quakes and all of its inhabitants, it is I, God speaking, who keeps steady its pillars.

[7:11] Silah. So the idea behind the silah is just a brief pause for meditation, just to think about what's just been said. When everything is becoming unloosed, it is God who steadies the pillars.

[7:26] When governments fall and nations war against each other, which we see natural disasters, which we see sicknesses, death, which we see, we know that God is rock solid and he's the one that holds all things together.

[7:44] The pillars stand because they must, because God is the one that upholds them. So while these things that happen that cause us to shake and the things around us to shake, they're difficult, but we can take comfort in the fact that that God is the one that's holding all this together.

[8:04] I was also reminded of just thinking of God keeping the pillars steady. There'll be a time where the pillars kind of keeping the earth where it is will be taken away, right?

[8:20] As God's judgment comes towards an end and the old earth passes away, the earth as we know it won't be anymore, but during that time, God is still going to rescue his own people, his church.

[8:35] He's going to pull them up, keep them safe as he gets the earth ready for the new heaven and the new earth and then puts us into that. Move down to verses four and five.

[8:55] I say to the boastful, do not boast, and to the wicked, do not lift up your horn. Do not lift up your horn on high or speak with haughty neck. The horn here symbolizes strength or power.

[9:11] So if you think of an animal with a horn or horns rather, like a large mountain goat, the horns are a symbol for that goat of strength.

[9:21] It's his protection. So that's what is meant when he's talking about the horn. So do not lift up your horn or speak with a haughty neck.

[9:31] The haughty neck being someone who's boastful and proud where they're sticking their head up and they're very proud of themselves. James 4, 6 says, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

[9:46] We all know that God is, hates those who are proud. The reason for that is because pride is us not giving praise to God but rather praise to ourselves from something that we did when really it's something that God gave us.

[10:03] So it's putting yourself in the place of God which is one of the reasons why he hates it and feels the way he does about it. If we look at verse 6 and 7, for not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up but it is God who executes judgments putting down one and lifting up another.

[10:30] Which is why we're called not the boast because the judgment and the lifting up and the putting down is something that comes from God. Things don't happen by chance because God is in control of those things.

[10:43] The putting down of one, the lifting up of another, it doesn't come from the rising or setting of the sun which is the thought here behind the east or the west as the sun comes up and as the sun goes down from the wilderness that is not where it comes from but it comes from God and Him executing His desire, His judgment on what He wants to do.

[11:13] Next we see in verse 8 we see a warning and a judgment coming to the wicked. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup of foaming wine in some translations they say wine that is red is well mixed and He pours out from it and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs.

[11:35] Here's the more difficult part of this psalm just because as we start to picture the wrath of God that He will be pouring out to those who remain wicked and do not accept Him do not accept the love that He's given us through Jesus Christ.

[11:56] For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup we can see from that like the punishment is already prepared it's not something that God is doing later but He's holding a cup so we get this picture that that punishment is there and ready for when He decides to execute it and it's for all those who do not follow God those who have laughed and rejected His Son His gift of love to them and because of that they will be forced to drink the wine of wrath at His table of justice.

[12:38] Revelation 14.10 says the same shall drink wine shall drink the wine of the wrath of God. So the red wine the foaming of the wine is supposed to be a representation of the wrath of God.

[12:55] Well mixed speaking of different things that are in the wine like His righteous anger and His justice these are all things that are not earthly or human anger and vengeance but it's a holy vengeance it's a righteous anger.

[13:14] and this is the what the wicked will be forced to drink in the end. So the imagery is really strong which was encouraging at times to the Israelites because of the enemies that were coming against them.

[13:31] They were looking for some type of justice when there wasn't any justice. So it's verses like this not that they were glad that this was happening to the enemies but they were able to take solace in the fact that God does give judgment.

[13:47] God does see what's happening to His children and it's not that He doesn't care He just has a timing that's different than what we think. So this judgment here is is a really a horrific ending for the wicked.

[14:03] But luckily and rejoicingly this song this psalm doesn't end here. we'll move on to verses 9 and 10 but I will declare it forever I will sing praises to the God of Jacob all the horns of the wicked I will cut off but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.

[14:21] So here we have the people of Israel coming back and finishing their song. They're rehearsing their singing of Jehovah's praises. Charles Spurgeon writes the covenant God who delivered Jacob from a thousand afflictions our soul shall magnify.

[14:38] He has kept his covenant which he made with patriarch and has redeemed his seed therefore we will spread abroad his fame world without end. The idea being that God is in control and the blessings that we've been given we don't make ourselves proud or boastful.

[15:00] He says all the horns of the wicked I will cut off. God abhords the proud but he lifts up the humble. So if God hates the proud that much because of what they stand for then his church should also make sure that we fight against pride in ourselves and pride in what we do pride in our church.

[15:21] So just in summary as we look through the different the highlights of just those ten verses is that we give thanks and we should always be given thanks.

[15:33] Notice he repeats that so when we're not giving thanks give thanks again. When it's hard give thanks. It's our way of reminding ourselves of what the things God has done for us it also gets our mind off of our troubles here and onto more of God's view of things as we remember what he's done and who he is because as he says in verse two I will judge with equity and he keeps the pillars steady God is the one that's in control and then further on to protect ourselves against pride so we need to watch our heart we need to watch our appearance and also our speech and how we talk so areas of pride because the wicked will be judged and we don't want to not only do we want to share the gospel with a lost world but we don't want how we talk or how we look to keep them from seeing that gospel in any way we don't want to be a stumbling block just in the way that we live because they will be judged and we don't say that out of us getting vengeance we say that out of really out of horror of the just the the the death of what hell is the depth of what that wrath is going to look like on those who don't believe

[17:04] God is just a scary thing so we keep that in view to help us in our sharing that with the world and then he ends with declaring the majesty of God so we sing his praises not knowing why God lifts up and tears down why God takes a life before we think it's time we still sing his praises his goodness